


Little Treasures

by orphan_account



Series: Enchanted Worlds [9]
Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 10:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahiru, Fakir, and Rue go Christmas shopping in the village.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Treasures

Ahiru awoke with a jolt.

At first she thought it was morning already, but soon realized that it was still too dark for that. She stared blearily around at the dull glow on her walls for a moment before bolting out of bed and half-stumbling across the floor to her window, still clutching her duck pillow. She shoved the curtains aside and was instantly delighted by what she saw.

“Woooooow…” The castle grounds were completely blanketed in white, and more was still gently falling from the sky. Ahiru climbed onto the window seat and knelt there with her face pressed to the glass. It was the first snow of the season, which was always the most special to her, and she was glad she hadn’t missed it. She stayed there for several minutes, just watching it drift down, before drawing the curtains again and returning to bed. She was convinced she’d been having some sort of dream before she’d woken up, but she wasn’t sure what kind. It hadn’t been a nightmare, but she didn’t think it had been a particularly good dream either. Not like the ones she occasionally had about Fakir, anyway (a thought that made her blush and stifle a giggle against the duck pillow). She decided it had probably just been a weird one that wasn’t really good or bad, and went back to sleep.

It was morning the next time she woke up, and the snow had already stopped. Anne-Erina came in to prepare her bath a few minutes later, and was mildly surprised to find her already awake. Ahiru babbled eagerly about the snow the entire time she bathed and dressed, and ran out of her room in a flurry of excitement to have breakfast with Fakir and Rue. She could hardly wait to finish, for instead of being stuck in a classroom for the bulk of the day they had the day off and planned to head into the village to do their Christmas shopping.

“Are you going to be all right by yourself?” Rue asked. They had finished eating and were on their way downstairs. “Those girls might still want to bother you…”

“I – I think I’ll be fine!” Ahiru nodded. “I’ve learned more magic since then, and anyway I kinda have to shop by myself or else the presents I get you two won’t be surprises since you’ll see me buying them and I want them to be surprises for you when you unwrap them and hopefully you’ll like them, that’s what I’m kinda nervous about cause I’ve never done any real present shopping before…”

“We’ll cherish whatever you give us, Ahiru.” Rue patted her shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Fakir?”

“Ah… y-yeah.” Fakir coughed. “It – it’s not a competition, so just relax. It’s more important to… to give a gift out of the… the genuine desire to give one.”

“Someone isn’t his usual eloquent self this morning,” Rue said in a conspiratorial tone just loud enough for Fakir to hear. He glared at her while Ahiru giggled. “He’s generally got the idea, though – what will matter, Ahiru, is that you wanted to give us things and make us happy, and those will make whatever you pick out special. As will the fact that they’re the first Christmas presents you’ve ever given us, so they’ll have sentimental value from that on top of everything else.” She gave Fakir another knowing look; he turned slightly red and averted his eyes. “And that’s better than monetary value any day.”

Ahiru brightened. “That’s true!”

“Indeed.” She smiled. “So don’t worry about that. But I do want you to be careful not to slip and fall and get hurt, and watch out for those girls, all right? I don’t want them harassing you. And if they do try anything, tell me and I’ll deal with them.”

“Okay!”

They split up when they got to the village, each going their own separate directions. Ahiru took one last lingering look at Fakir as they parted, and nearly collided with a lamp post as a result. Rue, who was keeping an eye on her in case Pike and Lilie decided to pop up as soon as they thought the coast was clear, chuckled to herself at the near mishap. If Ahiru still thought she didn’t have a crush on Fakir, she was fooling herself to an astonishing degree.

Fakir himself was oblivious to it all as he headed first to the book shop. After hearing from Ahiru about her fruitless search in the castle library for information about her mother, he was determined to try to find something on her at the stores here in town. She’d shown him what little she did have, and while he was glad those few things had been recovered from her uncle’s mansion, he felt like it wasn’t enough. Ahiru deserved more. So he would try to find it for her, and hopefully make her first Christmas here something truly special.

Unfortunately there was nothing to be found at the bookstore, save for a general book on ballet that mentioned her in passing, with less than five sentences total about her. That didn’t feel like enough. He did, however, find an art kit for small children that would be good for Uzura: it included a set of watercolor paints, some crayons, a few colored pencils, and sheets of paper both blank and illustrated, so that a child could draw things themselves or fill in the pictures.

On his way to pay for it, he paused at a display of bookmarks done by a local artist. He recognized the style from the ones that Ahiru had bought for him and Rue and decided to browse the selection. He couldn’t help looking for the one he’d seen Ahiru with a while back; he’d only gotten a brief glimpse of it, but the person depicted on it had seemed to resemble him. That particular one wasn’t there, though, and he decided that it had either been his imagination or he just hadn’t gotten a good enough look at it. Why, after all, would Ahiru want to have something that looked like him? It didn’t make any sense.

He did find one of a fairy princess that resembled Ahiru, though, and after a moment’s hesitation picked it up with the intention of buying it. It’s for a laugh, he told himself, his face growing uncomfortably warm. Not because of any other reason. I can show it to her and remind her of the conversation we had about her possibly being part fairy. It’s not at all for myself.

Even as he lied to himself, Fakir felt a prickle at his senses that interrupted his thoughts. He suddenly had the distinct feeling that he was being watched. And when he turned around, sure enough, there were those two girls, pressed up against the shop window with silly expressions on their faces as they stared at him. He made eye contact with them, and they both blushed. Their expressions turned to shock and a little bit of horror, though, when he gave them his fiercest glare before turning away. He hadn’t forgotten how they’d treated Ahiru, and didn’t feel like ever forgiving them either.

He didn’t see them anywhere around when he left the store, which was unusual. He was used to seeing them dash across the street into another shop, but they were nowhere to be seen when he left the bookstore. Fakir frowned at that as he scanned the street. He hoped it wasn’t a sign that they’d gone off to bother Ahiru again, and that they’d simply gotten better at hiding. It was possible, certainly, but he couldn’t help but feel worry nagging at him as he headed off to his next destination. The clothing store where he would pick up Rue’s gift certificate was closer than the used bookstore and the antique shop, so it made sense to go there first.

Once there, his attention was again drawn by something unexpected. A display table held a variety of three-piece sets that included a knitted hat, scarf, and mittens, and one in particular caught his eye. The soft wool was a lovely shade of blue that seemed to match Ahiru’s eyes (not that he’d paid much attention to her eyes, of course), and had a pattern of little yellow ducklings knitted into it. Fakir picked it up and stared at it; he already had his gift idea for Ahiru and some vague back-ups in case his plan of getting something to do with her mother didn’t pan out, but he couldn’t help but want to buy this for her too. Images of her in the hat and scarf drifted into his head, and he noticed that the mittens were small enough to hopefully fit her hands without being too big. He tried not to dwell on how perfectly her little hands had fit in his the few times he’d held them as he selected a set without any obvious imperfections and walked up to the counter to make his purchases.

Unbeknownst to him, Rue was elsewhere in the same shop, and didn’t see him enter or leave. The clothing store was her first stop, and she’d been in there for some time already. She’d already picked out a nice set of hair accessories for Ahiru, since the younger girl was beginning to experiment more and more with different hairstyles ever since Halloween. This would further encourage her in it and give her more options. Rue was eager to foster that, since it was clearly building her confidence in herself, even if only a little. And Ahiru desperately needed that: she was so quick to doubt herself at everything, and it was sad and painful to see. She wasn’t always the best at everything at first but Rue fully believed that there was potential inside her waiting to be utilized to its fullest, a belief that only grew stronger as she watched her get better and better at magic. And besides, she was a sweet, wonderful girl who _deserved_ to feel good about herself, even in the smallest of ways.

Currently, however, her goal was to pick out a new coat and umbrella for Fakir. He already had one of each, of course, but they were so old and shabby that she was sick of seeing them. There were frayed edges and loose threads on the sleeves, for goodness sake! It was obviously getting to be a bit too small for him! There was a tear in the umbrella! A small one, but even still! Rationally, she knew it shouldn’t bother her so, but all the same she couldn’t help but feel vaguely annoyed that despite the fact that they were well-off and didn’t really have to worry about money, he nevertheless had the habit of hanging onto things long after they should’ve been replaced, just because they still worked all right in his eyes, no matter what condition they were in. She didn’t know why he was that way, but it bugged her. And if it was simply because he hated to shop for clothes, well, she could help with that by shopping _for_ him.

She knew better, though, than to buy things that he would turn his nose up at and refuse to wear. That would defeat the whole purpose. His fashion sense – what there was of it – seemed to be  “plain, dark colored clothing that fit”.  Not exciting, certainly, but it did simplify the process of picking something out for him, so she wasn’t going to complain. She didn’t have to decide between two patterns and pick which one she thought he’d prefer, she just had to get something that looked like the right size and was in the colors he preferred. Most of the coats there were fancier, but eventually she found a plain black one that seemed like it would fit him, assuming he didn’t have another big growth spurt any time soon.

Her next stop was the toy store, in search of a gift for Uzura. Uzura had a lot of toys already, admittedly, but she was also outgrowing some of them and becoming bored as time went on, and there were many that never got played with anymore. Her plan was to get an assortment of smaller things that she would hopefully like. It would not only give her more options at playtime, but would also provide her with a greater number of things to unwrap. And nobody was more gleeful about tearing wrapping paper off a thing like Uzura was.

To her mild surprise, she met Ahiru at the door. “Hi, Rue!” Ahiru chirped. She had a bag of freshly purchased items over her arm, along with a couple bags from other stores. “Are you shopping for Uzura too?”

“Yes.” Rue peered into Ahiru’s bag. “If you don’t mind, could you show me what you got her? I’m planning on buying multiple little things for her, and I want to be sure I didn’t get the same thing you did.”

“Oh, of course!” Ahiru reached into the bag and pulled out another one. Inside was a shiny purple dress with matching shoes, fake jewelry, and even a toy tiara. “I got this for her so she could play dress-up, she says you’re like a princess since you’re so close to that prince and she wants to be just like you and she wants to go to a ball though she doesn’t really get it and thinks people play with toy balls or something but anyway I thought she might like this costume. Do you think it’s okay?”

“It’s lovely.” Rue smiled, and ignored the blush creeping across her cheeks at the mention of the prince. She had yet to buy his gift and was internally panicking a little over it. For all she’d told Ahiru about not stressing over gift selection, she couldn’t help but pressure herself to come up with something he’d treasure at least as much as she treasured the book he’d gotten her for her birthday. “I think she’ll really like it. Thank you for showing me, I’ll be sure not to duplicate anything in there. Though it might be nice to get something that she could use with it!”

Ahiru giggled. “You could get her a toy sword and she’d probably swing that around while dressed up.”

“Oh, she definitely would.” Rue laughed. “Not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, it’s a good idea, thank you – I might look for one.”

“She’d love that!” Ahiru smiled. “Well, good luck, I’m going to go try and finish up!” In addition to getting Uzura’s gift, she’d already gotten things for Rue and Chrestomanci, and most of the components for Fakir’s. She had two more stops to make for his, and would complete the rest at home.

“Thank you, and same to you.” Rue waved as Ahiru walked away. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah!”

Ahiru walked carefully down the street away from the toy store. She’d had a couple of close calls already right after getting here, and since some of what she’d bought was on the fragile side she wanted to be extra cautious. It wouldn’t do at all to slip and fall and have them break.

Fakir had been the hardest to shop for. She knew he liked to read, but she didn’t want to just get him a book, since he had access to so many at the castle library, and she was afraid of getting him something new by an author he hated and disappointing him. He hadn’t really opened up  much about his interests beyond that, aside from her discovery that he had had an interest in learning to use a sword that had apparently fallen by the wayside in favor of… something he wasn’t willing to talk about, clearly. That didn’t leave her many options.

In the end, she’d gone with a hollow book she’d found at the used bookstore, and she planned to draw little things on the inside and fill the space with smaller items. She had it in mind to make a bookmark for him, and she’d already saved a rose and an iris from his flower crown on Halloween and pressed them in a thick, heavy book she’d checked out from the library. Additionally, she’d found a beautifully cut crystal inkwell in good condition at the antique shop. She’d noticed during their study sessions that the one on his desk was in poor condition, all stained and chipped, with a hairline crack at the top, and so finding this one in the shop was perfect. The little description card said that the crystal had been magically treated to prevent staining, which was even better. She’d include a new bottle of ink with it, and a bag of some of his favorite candies.

She stopped first at the general supply store, and was relieved when she didn’t see Fakir there. She didn’t think he’d really need to shop there for Christmas presents, but he was there so often on regular days that she couldn’t help but worry over it anyway. Ahiru dawdled and hemmed and hawed over the ink on display before finally selecting a modest-sized, somewhat more expensive bottle of a beautiful, deep black one that showed glints of dark green in the right light. Like the irises she’d chosen for his Halloween flower crown, it reminded her of his pretty hair – she blushed as she realized she was describing him like that to herself – and thus was the only choice she could make in the end.

It was surprisingly crowded inside the candy store, and displays of special seasonal treats dotted every aisle. It would push her budget close to its limits, but Ahiru nevertheless couldn’t resist picking out a few of each kind to take home for herself, Rue, and Fakir to sample later, along with the small bags of Fakir’s favorites that she’d consolidate into one larger bag and hide inside the hollow book.

Something caught her eye as she peered into a pair of barrels full of peanut brittle and saltwater taffy, respectively, and in the next second two familiar faces were rising up from behind said barrels.

“Ohohoho, what have we here?” It was Lilie, her face contorted into a weird expression as she artificially deepened her voice in an attempt to sound spooky. “We’ve found something good!”

“Oh yes, indeed.” Pike let out a cackle of her own. “What a coincidence! Fate is on our side!”

“QUA - !” Ahiru backed up swiftly to get away from them, and collided with a nearby display table. “Ah! Oh no!” She turned around and tried her best to steady it, though she sent a few packages of candy tumbling onto the floor. She started to bend down to retrieve them, but was distracted by two shadows looming over her. Straightening up and turning back around, she found the two girls distressingly close and peering into her face. “Eeeek! What – what do you want?”

“Don’t you remember? We have unfinished business with you.” Pike cracked her knuckles, and Lilie did her creepy laugh again. “Related to that, are you shopping for Fakir? If you are, you surely must know what he likes, so you’ll have to tell us this time.”

“Unfinished… y-yeah, I remember that.” Ahiru swallowed. “You – you won’t get to Fakir by torturing me, you know! I told him about it and he didn’t like it at all and neither did Rue so they’ve been sticking by me when I come here cause they don’t want you to bother me. S-so if you really want to impress Fakir, you should leave me alone!”

“What?” Pike gasped. “Oh no! Lilie! This explains it!”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Lilie made a small wailing noise. “Oh nooooooooo, we’ve brought disaster upon ourselves!”

Ahiru blinked. “Explains what?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but it explains what happened earlier.” Pike glared at Ahiru. “We were watching him in a store and he turned and looked at us and even made eye contact. It was so exciting! But then he just GLARED at us like we were something foul he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe and we didn’t understand it until now. It’s all because _you_ had to go and blab to him about our previous encounter.”

“I expected him to just look coldly at us like the aloof bad boy hunk he is!” Lilie made a louder wailing noise, which drew some stares. “But he clearly wasn’t his usual self, and now I know why! It’s because he found out that we threatened his lady love! Oh, whatever shall we do about it? We are ruined!”

“His – wh-whaaaaaaaaaat?” Ahiru turned bright red and she had to stifle another quack. “I – I’m not his – we’re not – that is – he doesn’t – he would never see me that way, believe me!”

“Really?” Pike raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re not dating after all? Don’t lie to me!”

“We’re not.” Ahiru shook her head. “Not at all. We’re just friends!”

“Hmmm.” She gave Ahiru a considering stare before turning to Lilie. “I think I believe her. What about you?”

“Hmmm, yes, yes.” Lilie nodded. “There is the ring of truth to her words.”

“Somewhat. I mean, yes, she’s not worthy to date the wonderful Fakir, but at the same time she’s clearly oblivious to some things. Not that I mind,” Pike added. “And I won’t correct her either.”

“Um, what things?” Ahiru tilted her head in confusion. “I can hear you…”

“Never you mind,” Lilie cooed. “Don’t worry your dim little head over this.”

“If you’re plotting something else, I… well, like I said, Fakir wasn’t impressed with you at all,” Ahiru said nervously. “Neither was Rue. And – and she told me today that if you tried to do anything to me, that I should tell her, and – and she’d take care of it, whatever that means.”

She didn’t think it sounded like a very good threat because of the way she’d stammered, but she had the surprise anyway of seeing both girls pale considerably. “Did – did you say… Rue was displeased?” Pike asked, her voice weaker and less confident.

Ahiru nodded. “Y-yeah, she was really angry and she was worried about me being out alone today and she told me to tell her if anything happened and that she would take care of it if you tried anything.” It was so vague that she didn’t see how that would intimidate them.

“Oh no! Lilie!” Pike gave her a desperate look. “Not only Fakir is upset with us, but Rue as well! We’re doomed!”

“I never wanted to die young!” Lilie moaned. “Woe is me! What a tragic life I lead, cursed to perish at such an early age! But at least I’ll still be beautiful…”

“Please, it’s not that bad!” Pike rolled her eyes. “I mean, okay, it _is_ bad, but we can get out of it if we just stop messing with this girl and avoid Rue forever!”

Lilie sniffled. “You think?”

“I _know_! Come _on_!” Pike grabbed her friend’s hand and led her out of the candy store at a breakneck speed. They dodged around some of the displays, but a crashing noise followed by angry shouting from some employee told Ahiru that they hadn’t managed to evade all of them.

“That was weird.” Ahiru stared after them, a bit stunned by their sudden exit. It didn’t entirely make sense. What had Rue ever done to scare them so much? Maybe it was like Rue had theorized once, and they were afraid of her superior magical power. Either way, though, she was glad they’d left her alone, and hoped this meant they would continue to do so in the future. At the very least, it would be nice to be able to walk around the village without worry.

By the time she finished picking out Fakir’s candies and paid for them, she was feeling rather hungry, so she started back up to the castle. She had to try not to skip with joy over the things she’d bought, especially when she saw Fakir and Rue also heading that way. She was still a little nervous about what everyone would think of the gifts she’d gotten, but at the same time was very happy and mostly satisfied with what she’d found. She was eager, too, to start on the homemade portions of her present for Fakir. All in all, it had been a great day so far, and she was more excited than ever for the coming holiday.


End file.
